VIRGINIA ELKS ASSOCIATION

VIRGINIA RITUALISTIC COMMITTEE

Daniel I. Toft,GENERAL CHAIRMAN

DISTRICT CHAIRMAN

NORTH – Timothy E. Knotts CENTRAL - Don Kidd, Jr. SW - Brett A. Laudermilk SE –Linda Belch

August 23, 2006

To: Exalted Rulers Virginia Elks Association

Dear Exalted Ruler:

The Virginia Ritualistic Committee requests your participation in the "L. Glenn Morris Toast Contest" at the Fall Convention in Virginia Beach on October 14, 2006. The contest will begin at 2:00 P.M. and contestants will appear in the order that I receive each reply. Please reply as soon as possible as I have paper work to prepare before the contest.

To qualify for the Presidential Award your lodge must be represented by the Exalted Ruler or any chair officer in this contest. If you do not wish to compete, please see if one of your other chair officers will compete and represent your lodge.

All Elks and their families are invited to witness this contest. The enclosed toast is the one you must use and you will be judged on word accuracy, pronunciation and impressiveness by a panel of ritual judges. This write up also contains instruction on how to train yourself for the competition and how you will be judged. This is a training guide I put out last year for the August DD clinics. If you need some help in preparing, please contact your nearest Ritualistic committee member or me for assistance. I wish each of you the best of luck.

Daniel I. Toft, General Chairman VEA Ritualistic Committee

2501 Cortland Street

Waynesboro, Virginia22980

If you have access, you can e-mail the below information to (Please reference Toast Contest in the subject of your e-mail and indicate your office in the e-mail.)

PLEASE PRINT OR TYPE AND RETURN IMMEDIATELY

Name ______Lodge Name ______

Lodge Number______

Lodge Officer (circle one) Exalted Ruler Leading Knight Loyal Knight Lecturing Knight

will compete in the contest.

Guide for the L Glenn Morris Toast Contest

The toast contest in judged on the 3 areas list below. All areas count equally for this contest.

PRONUNCIATION – Use the Grand Lodge Ritualistic Manual pronunciation guide. Each word mispronounced is one demerit.

WORD ACCURACY – A word omitted or substituted is one demerit. In team ritual a substituted word would count as two errors. It is best, if you miss a phrase, not to go back as it will double the errors.

IMPRESSIVENESS – Per the Grand Lodge Ritualistic manual “Complete thought units” are the basis for impressiveness. If you chop a complete thought unit you get 1 demerit for each incomplete phrase within the thought unit. The other thing that most people have trouble with, which effects both pronunciation and impressiveness, is speed. The normal speed for speaking in public is 125 words a minute.. At this pace the toast should take a minute to complete. Time yourself and you will probable find that you are done in 30 to 40 seconds, which is way too fast. When you are too fast you run words together which become pronunciation errors and you mispronounce a lot more words. You also get a demerit for each complete thought unit that is delivered too fast. For your help I have marked the toast to show the proper complete thought units with double vertical lines ||.

I expect all lodges to compete and I wish all of you the best of luck. But remember your luck will be greatly enhanced by lots of practice!

CONTESTANT: Members and Guests.|| You have heard the tolling of eleven10

strokes.|| This is to remind us that with Elks the hour of eleven has a tender16

significance.|| Wherever Elks may roam, whatever their lot in life may be,|| when13

this hour falls upon the dial of night, the great heart of Elkdom swells and throbs.||16

It is the golden hour of recollection,|| the homecoming of those who wander,|| the14

mystic roll call of those who will come no more.|| Living or dead, Elks are15

never forgotten, never forsaken.|| Morning and noon may pass them by,|| the light13

of day sink heedlessly in the West,|| but ere the shadows of midnight shall fall,15

the chimes of memory will be pealing forth the friendly message,|| “To Our13

Absent Members."2